


Winter Knight for the Summer King

by GretchenSinister



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Fae & Fairies, M/M, Oaths & Vows
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-30
Updated: 2020-01-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 06:00:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 980
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22472221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: I heard it was AU day for JackSandy Week!Jack Frost is a knight of the Winter Court, sent away in an exchange as part of the treaty between the Summer and Winter Courts. The Summer King’s quite taken with him…quite a lovely pawn this boy is…
Relationships: Jack Frost/Sanderson Mansnoozie
Comments: 2
Kudos: 29
Collections: Cold Gold Short Fics





	Winter Knight for the Summer King

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 2/12/2014.

Frost knew why he was being sent away from the Winter Court—he laughed too easily, he talked too much, he had a rebellious streak a mile wide—but that didn’t mean that his heart didn’t ache as he walked over the months towards the Summer Court. For better or for worse, the grim beauty of Winter had been his familiar home. He _had_ served the dour king of Winter as loyally as he could, though apparently not with the kind of loyalty the Winter King had wanted.

And so now his final act of loyalty was to serve as the knight of exchange from the Winter to the Summer Court.

Only a few steps away now, he tried to tamp down his nervousness. If he accidentally froze the Summer Court, it would no doubt be taken as an act of war, and no one wanted that. The Summer King and the Winter King were very good at fighting each other, and doing so for centuries at a time. But war was difficult to focus on for everyone else, and Frost didn’t want to be the one to break the longest-lasting truce they’d ever had.

He took a deep breath and stepped across the invisible border into the apple-scented Summerlands. He felt himself noticed at once, and with another step he was only a few steps away from the Summer King’s throne.

He stared around, gaping, though he shut his mouth quickly. It wasn’t what he had expected, but this was _Summer_ , wasn’t it? Court was being kept on a beach of soft golden sand bathed in late afternoon sunlight, while most of the courtiers, male and female and those less easy to define, lounged on richly colored blankets, the little clothing they wore decoration rather than covering. A U of three-sided silk tents surrounded the court, providing shade and holding refreshment, while the open end of the U allowed the mermaids in the nearby sea to be included in court matters easily, though as far as Jack could see, his business of declaring himself as the knight offered by Winter might be the only thing on the agenda that day.

He felt stupidly overdressed in his elaborate armor of frosted ice, and even more stupidly unable to look at any of the Summer fae without staring. Though no two looked alike, they were all astonishingly beautiful in ways he hadn’t even been able to imagine before, so different were they from those of Winter. Was this how mortals felt, seeing any of them? He could almost sympathize.

To focus, he lifted his gaze towards the Summer King—and immediately had to lower his gaze. This King, too, was unlike what he had expected, being nearly the complete opposite of the Winter King.

He reclined in a low throne of polished driftwood that branched above him and along the ground almost as if it was a living thing, drinking from a golden cup. He was short, plump as a ripe peach, golden as the sun, with a broad, handsome face and round, open, but somehow uncanny eyes. He wore no impressive ceremonial robes, but only a light toga of green-gold silk that fluttered in the ocean breeze, and a circlet of seashells tied together with dune grass.

His eyes flashed as he saw Frost, and he grinned widely. “Our Winter Knight,” he said quietly, and all other conversations ceased. Frost felt dozens of eyes turn toward him and he gulped. The Winter King hadn’t told him what to do at this point. He had to swear his fealty, yes, but there was so little formality here.

“Come forward, Winter Knight,” the Summer King said. “Kneel.”

This, at least he was familiar with.

“The Winter King has sent you to us.” The Summer King spoke so that all the court might hear. “Do you renounce him and swear your loyalty to me?”

Before he could think, Frost replied in the affirmative.

The Summer King’s grin softened. “What shall we call you?”

“You may call me Winter Knight, or Frost.” The Summer King nodded, and the court applauded—strange, Frost thought, to be applauded—before immediately going back to their previous amusements.

He went to stand, but a look from the Summer King kept him kneeling. The King beckoned him forward, and Frost obeyed, until he was close enough to the Summer King to breathe the scent of his skin. He smelled, dizzyingly, of honey. Frost felt entirely out of his depth, a feeling that was only reinforced when the King spoke into his ear in a husky whisper. “So you are the fine gift the King of Winter has sent to me. Were you his most favored knight, Frost?”

“His other knights were naught but the shadows of bare branches,” Frost answered.

The Summer King chuckled low in his throat. “Lovely. He always had such trouble with minds not his own. But I can already tell that you will soon become _my_ most favored knight. Tell me, Frost,” he said, his lips nearly brushing his ear, his warm breath melting the armor around his throat and revealing his pale skin, “what shall _I_ call you?”

“You want my name!”

“Mmmm. I am your king now, I have a right to it…I am accustomed to full use of things I have the right to.”

Frost took a deep breath and shivered as more of his armor became drops of sparkling water running down his skin. “Jack Frost,” he said, quickly, quietly. He couldn’t have refused. He didn’t think he even really wanted to.

“Beautiful,” the Summer King murmured, and with his next breath melted the rest of Frost’s armor away.

The first-ever touch of Summer’s sunlight on his skin made him gasp in shocked delight, while something in the Summer King’s eyes reminded him that he was still all-too-capable of burning.

**Author's Note:**

> Tags and Comments from Tumblr:
> 
> #you get no points for figuring out who the Winter King is#aggressive fae king Sandy is doing things to me oh dear
> 
> tejoxys said: Oh my god, he’s terrifying. o.o


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